View full sizeLeslie Williams, The Times-PicayuneFirefighters respond to a strip mall fire in Gentilly on Tuesday evening.

Three developers recently cast their lots in NORA's latest effort to revive the 184,000-square-foot strip mall at Press Drive, which the agency bought in 2009 for $4.2 million -- outbidding private developers -- with the aim of giving neighbors in Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods influence over the area's commercial hub.

One of the companies that NORA elbowed out, mega-retailer Wal-Mart Corp., is back at the table, along with Thor Equities LLC of New York and Michaels Development Co., a New Jersey-based nonprofit builder, Executive Director Joyce Wilkerson said.

The firms responded in March to a request for qualifications that says NORA wants the project to yield an "attractive and vibrant retail property that provides amenities for the community and promotes additional investment in the surrounding neighborhood."

The request, which indicates that NORA could furnish as much as $4.5 million in federal block grants for the project, anticipates that a developer will be chosen this month. Wilkerson would not hedge on the evaluation process, which she said is still under way.

"We'll look to move the proposal quickly," she said. "It does nobody any good to have (the vacant property) just sitting there."

Officials issued the solicitation after the late 2010 cancellation of their deal with Gentilly Woods Partners, a group headed by local real estate brokerage firm Corporate Realty, she said. That developer had planned to restore the strip mall with a department store and a full-service grocery as anchor tenants.

The team claimed to have letters of interest from TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshall's discount department stores, and Albertson's, which owns grocery and drugstore chains. Its plan included spending $23.6 million to create 150,000 square feet of shopping space and to beautify the façade.

"The project simply wasn't coming together, and the relationship kept restructuring itself, so we just terminated," Wilkerson said. "One of the challenges has been the market, the national economy."

Residents at the time balked at a $15.9 million proposal by Wal-Mart to open a big-box store at the site. While the project would have limited the public's risk and quickly jump-started commercial activity, residents said they wanted a retail mix.

As the search for a developer continues, neighbors have reported that vagrants might be living at the shuttered site, and Wilkerson said NORA officials on Monday visited the property to check on the complaints.

"We had our inspectors go out with police," she said. "There was no evidence that people were living there."

Hours before the Tuesday evening blaze, which likely was started by an intruder, NORA dispatched a contractor to secure a fence around the property and to make sure doors and windows were sealed, Wilkerson said. That effort will be stepped up in light of the fire, including welding shut some doors, she said.

Wilkerson did not have an estimate of fire damage, which she said was mostly caused by heavy smoke and was limited to a single retail outlet.

Contrary to a fire captain's statement Tuesday, NORA had not planned to tear down the shopping center, though Wilkerson said the winning developer may opt to seek a demolition permit.